Say No to Yes

Film: Yes Man
Director: Peyton Reed
Cast: Jim Carrey, Terrence Stamp
Rating:
Running at: Inox Forum, City Centre, Swabhumi
In the early 1990s when Jim Carrey burst into the comedy scene with Ace Ventura films we all loved the audacity of the actor-this goofy, oddball comic genius, who seemed to be Hollywood8217;s answer to Govinda. But then I stopped being 12, and it became apparent that the sole aim of this actor with an inhumanly mobile face, is to wipe out any trace of subtle comedy from the face of the earth. When he8217;s trying to make us laugh, all he can do is thrust his pelvis like a bull on heat and contort his face into a grotesque, molten blob of flesh. When he8217;s trying to convey emotions, it8217;s even worse we will not talk about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind here.

Yes Man, is another testament to his supposed comic genius. The film ocsillatess wildly between an attempt a poignant drama on the lines of In Pursuit of Happyness and what appears to be a prototypical product of a screenwriting software which has been fed all of Carrey8217;s earlier movies . Carrey looks like he is outracing himself to a stimulant-induced heart attack, and the other characters seem to be mute spectators.

Carrey is an under-achiever grumpus who has managed to alienate everyone around. His life, like in all his earlier movies, is one big mess. Which means that we get to see him make a lot of funny faces and distort his rubbery body into a tangled mess. After he attends a seminar, where a new-age guru advises him to say yes to everything, life kickstarts for our affable loser. He finds himself a likable girlfriend, manages to win his friends back and also impress his boss with his ever-obliging ways. All is peachy but things of course take a turn for worse, and our funny man gets excuse to coontort his face some more.

Even in the world of trashy Hollywood comic actors Adam Sandler anyone?, it8217;s rare to find an actor with such an overwhelmingly corny and repetitive body of work. Jim Carrey takes that rare honour. Sometimes one wonders if it is not a a grand plan of this actor. Firstly, kill what we know as comedy and then establish himself as the prototype of a genre of filmmaking where everybody just makes faces and thurst the pelvis. Scary!!